Merit (Buddhism)

Merit-making is important to Buddhist practice: merit brings good and agreeable results, determines the quality of the next life and contributes to a person's growth towards enlightenment.

[10][11][12] Later, in the period of the Upaniśads, a concept of rebirth was established and it was believed that life in heaven was determined by the merit accumulated in previous lives,[13][11][12] but the focus on the pitṛ did not really change.

[29][30][31] Externally, present good circumstances, such as a long life, health and wealth, as well as the character and abilities someone is born with, arise from merits done in the past and vice versa, with demerits.

[16][67] A number of scholars have criticized the concepts of merit and karma as amoral, egoist and calculative, citing its quantitative nature and emphasis on personal benefits in observing morality.

[47][68][69] Other scholars have pointed out that in Buddhist ethics egoism and altruism may not be as strictly separated as in western thought, personal benefit and that of the other becoming one as the practitioner progresses on the spiritual path.

The Bodhisatva intent on accomplishing Buddhahood and bringing other beings across the ocean of suffering, must do so by accumulating all sorts of merits, in this context also called perfections (Pali: pāramī; Sanskrit: pāramitā).

[103][104] The Thai scholar and monastic Phra Payutto believes that merit and kuśala are both used to describe the 'cleanliness of the mind' (RTGS: khwam sa-at mot chot).

Nor can any normal Buddhist not care whether his acts, wrought up hourly in their effect into his present and future character, are making a happy or a miserable successor.

And so, without any definite belief as to how, or in what realm of the universe he will re-arise as that successor to his present self, the pious Buddhist, no less than his pious brethren of other creeds, goes on giving money and effort, time and thought to good works, cheerfully believing that nothing of it can possibly forgo its effect, but that it is all a piling up of merit or creative potency, to result, somewhere, somewhere, somehow, in future happiness—happiness which, though he be altruistic the while, is yet more a future asset of his, than of some one in whom he naturally is less interested than in his present self.

[175][176] On a similar note, in Sri Lanka, kings and commoners would offer slaves to the temple, and then donate money to pay for their freedom, that way accruing two merits at once.

[178] Many devout Buddhists observe regular "rest days" (Pali: uposatha, Sanskrit: upavasatha) by keeping five precepts, listening to teachings, practicing meditation and living at the temple.

In the fourteenth century CE, the Tao master Zhao Yizhen recommended the use of the ledgers to examine oneself, to bring emotion in harmony with reason.

[102][197] Gombrich objects to calling merit-making "dry metaphysical mercantilism", but he does speculate on a historical relation between the concept of merit and the monetization of ancient India's economy.

[196][224] Initially in the Western study of Buddhism, some scholars believed that the transfer of merit was a uniquely Mahāyāna practice and that it was developed only at a late period after the historical Buddha.

For example, Heinz Bechert dated the Buddhist doctrine of transfer of merit in its fully developed form to the period between the fifth and seventh centuries CE.

[74] In the period preceding the arising of Buddhism, it was believed that after a person's death he had to be transformed from a wandering preta to reach the blissful world of the pitṛs.

[234][235] Sree Padma and Anthony Barber note that merit transfer was well-established and a very integral part of Buddhist practice in the Andhra region of southern India.

[236] In addition, inscriptions at numerous sites across South Asia provide definitive evidence that the transfer of merit was widely practiced in the first few centuries CE.

[175][251] In the Tipiṭaka, ideas about good governance were framed in terms of the ideal of the 'wheel-turning monarch' (Pali: Cakkavatti; Sanskrit: Cakravartin), the king who rules righteously and non-violently according to Dharma.

[250] Because of these traditions, kings have had an important role in maintaining the Sangha, and publicly performed grand acts of merit, as is testified by epigraphic evidence from South and South-East Asia.

During the period of religious reform and administrative centralization in the nineteenth and early twentieth century, however, Thai temples were no longer supported in this manner and had to find other ways to maintain themselves.

[270][271] Furthermore, in some Buddhist countries, such as Thailand, there is a tendency among teachers and practitioners to dismiss and even revile merit-making in favor of teachings about detachment and attaining Nirvana, for which L. S. Cousins has coined the term "ultimatism".

[275] In 2014, when Burma ranked highest on the World Giving Index (tied with the United States, and followed by many other Buddhist countries), scholars attributed this to the Burmese habit of merit-making.

[280][281] Some scholars have suggested that merit-making may have affected the economies of Buddhist countries in a negative way, because spending savings on the local temple would prevent consumption and investment and therefore stunt economic growth.

In traditional Buddhist societies, quick changes in position, status, or roles are therefore considered part of life, and this insecurity is a motivator in trying to improve the situation through merit-making.

In Thailand, around the turn of the twentieth century, a millennialist movement arose regarding the coming of a Phu Mi Bun, to the extent of becoming an insurgency which was suppressed by the government.

[301] Lucien Hanks has shown that beliefs pertaining to Phu Mi Bun have profoundly affected the way Thai people relate to authority.

[40] Indologist Arthur Basham, however, believed that in contemporary Thai society the Phu Mi Bun is more of a label, and merit more of a secular term than a deeply-rooted belief.

Studies done in Cambodia, Hong Kong and Taiwan have shown that the practice may not only be fatal for a high percentage of the released animals, but may also affect the survival of threatened species, create a black market for wildlife, as well as pose a threat for public hygiene.

The costly release, advertised on Facebook as The Great Rabbit Liberation of 2016, was supported by Buddhist monastics from Singapore and the Tibetan tradition, and was based on the idea of merit-making.